HIDDEN HORRORS: MONSTERS IN THE MEN'S MAGS

The publishing team of brothers Myron and Irving Fass churned out magazine titles fast and furious during the 1960's and 1970's. A whacked-out mix of girlie magazines, monsters, UFO's and anything capitalizing on the most current pop culture craze that a buck could be made on, it is older brother Myron's EERIE PUBLICATIONS horror and sci-fi comics magazines that are remembered most out of the melange.

The eccentric publishing empire fondly remembered for its lurid covers of monsters beating up and eating other monsters, busty vamps ripping up hairy werewolves with their claws and gobs of blood and gore were so extreme as to be ridiculous. Still, they lasted for about 15 years and ensured that the name "Fass" would be indeliby etched on the scroll of monster magazine history.

The June 1963 issue of FOTO-RAMA, a girlie magazine racy for the day but tame by today's glut of unimaginative feasts of flesh, contained the usual page-count of pin-up photos. Posed in a manner that was risque but not raunchy, any bare breast that showed a little too much was tipped with a heart-shaped censor's mark, a little more attractive than the well-known "censor's strip" that was commonly used on magazine photographs that might be considered objectionable by the general public. The magazine's masted listed the art director as one Irving Fass.



F0T0-RAMA was one of the many magazines
churned out by the eerie publishing empire
of brothers Myron and Irving Fass.

Monterologists might also be interested to know that a hidden bit of monster magazine lore lurked within this issue of FOTO-RAMA. Found deep into its pages was a full-page ad for the 3-issue run of the horror title previously produced by Fass called THRILLER.

For only a buck and an extra 2-bits for postage, you could receive a trio of terrifying magazines that promised stories about weird gals and ghouls that were "guaranteed to send shivers down your spine and scare the yell out of you." You could read about a wanton witch and meet the gal would like "somebody to lay her in her grave." You get the picture.


The masthead of FOTO-RAMA showing Irving Fass as Art Director.


To tie it in with the marketing of the adult readership, a stack of 5 "cheesecake" photo pin-ups was offered as a premium. Also of note is the fact that this ad was used in PHOTO LIFE, another Fass publication -- you can see that it was pasted up from the other magazine from the title at the bottom of the ad.

All-in-all a fascinating tidbit of monster mag trivia, don't you think?



For only a buck you could get 3 monster mags.
Today, prices for these same issues run
in the hundreds of dollars.




The "fotos" in FOTO-RAMA were limited to
fairly tame model poses by today's standards.




When the pics got a little too risque, out came
the little black heart-shaped censor's marks.
During the day, adopting this practice kept
kept "girlie" magazines lke FOTO-RAMA on
the newsstand rack and out from under the
counter where the real nasties were.